This week’s climate debate proved the political salience of environmental breakdown. In a first for a British election, all the main parties have highlighted climate change in their manifestos, setting deadlines for domestic emissions reduction.
Voters are also now more concerned about the environment than the economy. Rightly so – 11,000 scientists have warned that “without an immense increase in the scale of our endeavours”, environmental breakdown will cause “untold suffering”.
But no country is an island. The public conversation needs to develop beyond domestic action, to grapple with our responsibility beyond these shores.
